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Facebook Pitches Its Political Benefits

By J.P. Freire October 10, 2007 8:01 amOctober 10, 2007 8:01 am

Two blocks from the Capitol, a 20-something man lectured a full room at the Hyatt Regency Hotel filled with what appeared to recent college graduates, ranging in dress from jeans to suits. The focus of discussion was how to get candidates into office using the Web. And while it may sound like a typical Washington strategy session, the lecturers weren’t the insiders you’d expect.

They were with Facebook.

Ezra Callahan, Facebook’s 20-something senior products manager and other staff members from the popular social networking site held morning and afternoon workshops to show campaign staff and consultants how to leverage Facebook as part of a campaign strategy. Fewer than 200, mostly younger, tech-savvy attendees took notes, but would likely have to find a way to explain their new knowledge patiently to their less technically inclined supervisors.

Among the suggestions are creating a profile for the candidate, as well as a “group page” dedicated to the campaign, which allows users of the site to join as a show of support. Once a member, users can receive messages and news updates from the campaign, participate in online discussions and share campaign videos with friends. Most notably, however, is that once a user joins, all his friends can see his affiliation.

“Our goal is to make you win,” offered Josh Rahn, Facebook’s director of sales, after explaining that of 45 million active users, 80 percent are of voting age. These users spend an average of 22 minutes on the site a day, more than enough time to hear the campaign’s pitch. Mr. Rahn cited a 2006 House race in Connecticut in which Democrat Joe Courtney won over Republican incumbent Rob Simmons by 83 votes. Considering the 720 percent increase in turnout among student voters at the University of Connecticut, Courtney’s reliance on Facebook didn’t hurt.

One audience member asked: Who’s the most savvy among current presidential contenders? Facebook staffers lauded Barack Obama’s application, which appears on the profile of any user who opts to use it. Whenever a friend of the user visits the user’s profile, that friend is treated to news and videos from the Obama campaign. Kudos also went to Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney.

The audience included the AFL-CIO, Emily’s List, a member of Senator Hillary Clinton’s campaign as well as insiders representing the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Democratic offices such as Senators Harry Reid and Bob Casey. Very few Republicans were present, aside from a lone Ron Paul campaign staff member and members of the Young Republican National Federation.

Direct mail isn’t going away anytime soon as a vehicle for reaching voters. But it’s clear that web-savvy campaign managers would like to benefit from broadening the way voters support campaigns, especially with the advent of the social-network generation. After all, it takes far less effort to join a group on Facebook than it does to plant a campaign sign on a lawn.

The pitfalls are obvious, at least to one staff member from the D.C.C.C. The staff member related a story about how, while managing Jim Webb’s Facebook profile during his 2006 Senate run, he inadvertently joined a Facebook group that lewdly referenced binge-drinking, drug-abuse, and promiscuity in its title. While the staff member quickly left the group, Mr. Webb’s Facebook supporters still received a notice that he had joined it, and subsequently left the group.

In another instance, the person managing Hillary Clinton’s Facebook profile inadvertently accepted a relationship request from a supporter, leaving other supporters slightly confused, if not slightly jealous.

“[…] Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy didn’t change the world by asking people to join their Facebook crusades or to download their platforms. Activism can only be uploaded, the old-fashioned way — by young voters speaking truth to power, face to face, in big numbers, on campuses or the Washington Mall. Virtual politics is just that — virtual.[…]”

A clever(er) person would create a mock candidate combining some of the best and worst qualities of the current candidates in an attempt to beat them at their own social network leveraging game. Plus it would probably get some news attention if it grew fast enough. Satire works for John Stew.

You might be more clear on how, exactly, a “relationship request” is different than a “friend request” on Facebook. Someone managing Hillary Clinton’s profile inadvertently accepted a request to, basically, list Hillary as dating one of her supporters.

Are campaigns going to sometimes be needled by bothersome bugs or innocent gaffs whilst speaking to millions of potential voters via Facebook … sure, once in a while. But as our trusty crass and sensationalistic media over-saturates us with these ridiculous and petty foibles, most
semi-intelligent bi-peds will recognize that these “slip-ups” are not much more than just that. If I were a serious candidate, would I trade away the inherent promise of delivering my platform and developing mutual beneficial political relationships with millions of Facebook users simply because of a silly paranoid “slip-up” fear?
Simply put, NO WAY!

Facebook’s proven networking forum is an ideal format to disseminate all forms of opinion and it even allow us the ability to establish group political sympathies. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of listening to candidates who are totally scripted and running scared. Let’s put it all out there just like in the good old days … remember, a candidate would stand on an old stump and have to actually earn his/her consituients. Honestly, not much has really changed except that Facebook is the new and much improved stump.

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